motionsimulation
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Samsung's experimental headphones send electric impulses to your brain
Not to be outdone by Sony's experimental Future Lab hardware, Samsung is showing off a trio of projects from its C-Lab teams. The most intriguing of these three is definitely the Entrim 4D hardware. It looks like a basic pair of over-ear headphones, but they use electrical signals to trick your brain into feeling a sense of motion.
Immersit's crazy 4D motion sofa kit hits Kickstarter
Immersit thinks that your gaming, virtual reality or home cinema experience could be a little more dynamic. To fix that, it just launched its Immersit 4D motion sim for your sofa on Kickstarter. The device consists of four hydraulic pads that lift the corners of your couch or chair via a central controlling "brain." By moving the pads, it can make your couch tilt, rotate, or vibrate with up to a thousand different motions. All of that is powered by another box that connects to a PC, game console or AV device.
Your couch can become a VR thrill ride with Immersit
I've tried virtual reality demos a few times and there's always just a little something missing. Whenever the VR camera moves through an environment, I know my body isn't actually moving, and it breaks the immersion. To fix that, Immersit's device props your couch up on four motors to move back/forward, up/down and side-to-side (or any combination of those). Tonight I gave it a quick demo while wearing a VR headset playing 360-degree video filmed from the perspective of a rally car to see how well that works. While it didn't have as much bounce as your average low-rider, its movements were enough to help trick my inner ear into thinking I might actually be on a WRC course instead of the CES Unveiled show floor.
Ariel Atom-inspired simulator touts world's first 180-degree spherical projector screen (video)
The Ariel Atom is arguably one of the greatest bangs for the buck in terms of sports car performance, so it's no surprise that the automaker has paired up with Motion Simulation to design a particularly special simulator for both hardcore fans as well pro racing drivers and pilots. The TL1 has the world's first 180-degree spherical projection unit (technically, three projector screens acting as one) to give you that advance view of the apex without display bezels getting in the way. Its seat not only adjusts to fit different breeds of cars and aircraft but, if you opt for it, tucks in a motion transducer that will properly jolt you when you hit a bump in the road. What may please extra-serious racing game fans the most is the off-the-shelf nature of the computer needed to drive the TL1 properly: as long as your graphics hardware can handle the extra-wide 5760 x 1200 resolution, any typical Windows XP or Windows 7 desktop will do. The real question is whether your wallet can handle it, as the £11,500 ($18,573) PC-less starting price will make it tempting to buy a real Atom instead.
Ben Heck tackles Android ADK, whips up car trip-simulating baby seat
We've been wondering what would happen if the infinitely resourceful Ben Heck got his hands on the powerful Android ADK. Thankfully, in the most recent episode of the accomplished modder's show, our curiosity is satiated. The crafty Wisconsinite tackles a reader request -- to recreate the soothing motion of a car ride and help put a three-month-old baby to sleep. Mr. Heck uses the accelerometer in his phone to record the bounce and sway from the backseat as he drives around. He then draws up some code that will feed that data to the Arduino-powered ADK and move a series of servos that will tilt and shake a child's car seat. Sadly, the completion of the project will have to wait till the next exciting episode, but by the end of the installment embedded after the break you do get to see a scale model. What are you waiting for? Click that little read more link for PR and video... you know you want to.
